Beyond the Stars

Fallen Star - part 4

Part 4

We entered the city sewer at the entrance beside the train station, under the assumption that it was most likely the one Dean used. Xena released the leash on the ciegona and it lumbered off into the darkness. I felt terrible. We'd no idea what this creature would do or what we'd just unleashed - literally - on the city. Other than the visitor's word that it would destroy the caparra, there was nothing to say that it wouldn't make its way out of the sewer and randomly attack someone. But what other option did we have? Our weapons were useless against it.

Chuck refused to come with us to the entrance. We found him unconscious and very pale when we got back to the truck about an hour after leaving him. Remembering the wound, I opened his jacket and swore. There was blood everywhere; my hands were covered in it, so was the floor of the truck.

It took a lot of manoeuvring, two women trying to move the bulk of a man into the passenger seat, but we eventually managed to move him enough so I could drive to the hospital. They assumed it was a stab wound, but they couldn't stop the bleeding.

Chuck died. Xena - that's all I've ever known her by - disappeared when the hospital called the cops. They arrested me for his murder. They're also trying to pin Dean's murder on me too, but it will never go to trial. Thanks to my lawyer's disbelief and the subsequent plea he entered on my behalf, I was deemed unfit to stand. I'll spend the rest of my days confined to a cell in the nut house; the eastern wing of Liteon Prison.

When they let me watch television, I keep the channel tuned to News 24. Torn between the hope that I don't hear of any unusual deaths and praying that some evidence of the creature would present itself and prove to the world I'm not crazy. That we're not alone.

The End